M83 was recently commissioned to lend his electro arena rock to a sci-fi blockbuster score, which makes sense, but an ex-Beatle making the soundtrack for a sci-fi shooter videogame? You better believe it.
Australian videogame website Gamespot has picked up on a tweet from Sir Paul McCartney stating that he’s been collaborating with videogame makers, Bungie, the studio responsible for the mega-successful Halo franchise.
“I’m really excited to be working on writing music with @bungie, the studio that made Halo.” – Paul twitter.com/PaulMcCartney/…
— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) July 7, 2012
The legendary musician won’t be composing music for the forthcoming Halo 4 as Bungie sold the series back to it’s parent company, Microsoft, in 2010 and have since gone under the auspices of Activision, one of the industry’s leading developers and publishers, to create a new series called codenamed Destiny.
McCartney is working with the developers on their new “sci-fantasy, action shooter games” to produce a score for the series, which is still a ways of from official release.
It’s not the first time the 70-year-old musician has been involved in the videogame industry, having helped develop and produce The Bealtes: Rock Band game for multiple platforms. The 2009 title saw players emulating The Beatles’ illustrious career while playing plastic instruments along to a catalogue of 40+ songs of the band’s biggest hits with digital likeness of the Fab Four.
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McCartney has also noted his interest in the medium in an interview with German press, Die Zeit earlier this year. Particularly it’s ability to expose his music to a newer audience as well as the financial strength of the booming videogames industry. “It’s a fascinating market,” he was quoted as saying, “a new computer game sells so much better than a new CD these days. Young people will hear my music for the first time in a game.”
Speaking of Games, McCartney has also recently confirmed to the BBC that he would be playing the opening ceremony of London’s 2012 Summer Olypmpics; saying “I’ve been booked” and would be “closing the opening” of the event, celebrating all things British in a cast of 15,000 performing before an estimated global audience of four billion.
